One night she was hosting a family from Paris. The next night, it was sisters from Minnesota. Before that, there were people from London, Washington, D.C., even Arab, Alabama.

Most of them came to see the national memorial to lynching victims three blocks away from the Cottage Hill home, and the city’s other Civil Rights sites. Getting to talk to Airbnb owner Farris Bell, who grew up here during segregation, is a nice bonus.

“I can tell them what my life was like in a very segregated and backwards town. My experience was very much the experience of Montgomery, Alabama, for people of my age,” Farris said. “I can also talk about what’s happened since (then), and seeing the changes and the growth. I tell people, even after all that has happened, I’m hopeful.”

Her home is now the most popular Airbnb spot in the city, during a massive wave of growth for the lodging business here.

Airbnb bookings in Montgomery are up 194 percent this year, a number that a company representative called “astounding.” Airbnbs are still catching on here and trail some other Alabama cities in the number of listed sites. But the fast growth of the past few months has pushed it up to just behind Birmingham, Mobile and a couple of Gulf Coast beach towns for most total bookings in the state.

That’s happening while the city sees an explosion in hotel business. Montgomery led the state in occupancy rate for the past few years even as new hotels were added, and the number of hotel guests is still growing. Through September, there have been 77,000 more nights booked than during the same period last year, according to the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce.

The city is trending up 10,000 room nights per month and should maintain that pace through at least November, the Chamber said.

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One reason for that growth is the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, also known as the lynching memorial. Opened in conjunction with the nearby Legacy Museum, the memorial in downtown’s Cottage Hill neighborhood is filled with hanging columns etched with the names of people who were lynched between 1877 and 1950. It had a star-studded debut April 27 and made headlines around the world.

By August, it had drawn more than 100,000 visitors and other historic sites were seeing their numbers rise. For instance, the nearby Rosa Parks Library and Museum saw 11,000 more visitors in the first eight months of 2018.

James Weddle estimates that “nine out of 10” of the guests at his Airbnb on the outskirts of Cottage Hill are here to see the historic sites, and that demand is up since the EJI sites opened.

“It couldn’t get any busier,” Weddle said.

That’s not just limited to Cottage Hill.

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Visitors of EJI Memorial speak about its impact on them
Albert Cesare

There’s an Airbnb spot inside the home of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife, Zelda. It’s in the Cloverdale neighborhood, but their guests tell them a similar story. “Most of the folks we’ve had, even, are coming for EJI,” Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum Director Sara Powell said. “They come to stay with us because they’re seeking a specific narrative.”

The Fitzgerald Airbnb has been popular enough that Powell said historic sites in other cities have reached out to talk about whether it could work for them, maybe help pay the bills while offering guests a unique place to stay.

Powell said there’s an opportunity for more of that in Montgomery, that launching Airbnbs at more historic sites could bring more money and tourism to some forgotten areas of the city. Meanwhile, she said the city’s Airbnb sites are hoping to keep the momentum going by referring guests to each other.

Bell didn’t expect all of this to take off so quickly when she decided to convert a guest space in her retirement house to an Airbnb. She knew the EJI project was on the way, “but nothing happens fast here,” she laughed. A year later, her place is booming and she has people in the neighborhood asking her for advice about setting up their own.

“There’s an interest in more Airbnbs in Montgomery, and in this area, as a matter of fact,” Bell said.